Cecelia Beaux - 1855 Society Painter in the Grand Manner
Cecelia Beaux a passionate, ambitious and committed painter was thought by many to be the finest portrait artist in America. She received acclaim from New York to Philadelphia to Paris. She received full membership in the male dominated National Academy. Born into a family of privilege in Philadelphia she studied in France and was a contemporary of Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent. She received a gold medal from the women's fraternal group Chi Omega given to her by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for her contribution to culture in America. Beaux was a contemporary of John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt. She was a popular and well loved artist who painted Mrs Theodore Roosevelt and her daughter at the White House. Beaux studied under Thomas Eakins, William Sartain, Bouguereau and Benjamin Constant. The first full time woman faculty member at the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Beaux taught drawing, painting, and portraiture for twenty years.